Ned Pines’ owned Standard Magazines, which also were known as Beacon Magazines, Best Books, Better Publications, Nedor Publishing, and others. Most readers thought of them as the “Thrilling” Pulps: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, etc. The editorial offices of editors like Mort Weisinger and Leo Marguiles pumped out millions of words a year. This required a stable of writers in all the genres they published. In Science Fiction, this included Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, Otto Binder, Manly Wade Wellman and Alfred Bester (all writers who would also write comics for some of the same editors ten years later.)
Occasionally, one of two things would happen. A high-production writer would have two stories in one issue. Instead of repeating their name on the TOC (Sometimes one writer wrote the whole magazine!) a house name would be used. Jackson Cole, E. K. Jarvis, Alexander Blade, S. M. Tennsehaw, Robert Wallace, all had prolific careers despite the fact they never existed. (Nothing will keep a good Pulp writer down!) Will Garth is another of these invisible men. Unlike some, we know some of the authors who published under his name.
Will Garth (1938-1947) worked in multiple genres: Science Fiction, Western, Mystery and Adventure. Sadly, many titles still remain unclaimed and probably no one will ever reveal their true authors. The real writers were often office assistants or even the editors themselves. Long decades later, most of the editors and writers are gone. Even where people survive, there was little reason for anyone to remember who did what or why. Pulp history is often filled with holes.
The Works of Will Garth
“The Whistler Moves In” (Popular Western, March 1938) – unknown
“Vengeful Ghost” (Thrilling Mystery, July 1938) – unknown
“The Bloodless Peril” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1937) – Henry Kuttner
“Birthday Guns” (Texas Rangers, January 1938) – unknown
“Rays of Blindness” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938) – Otto Binder
“The Great Illusion” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1938) – Edmond Hamilton
“Law Heritage” (Texas Rangers, October 1938) – unknown
“Hands Across the Void” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1938) – Henry Kuttner
“Turnabout” (Startling Stories, March 1939) – Mort Weisinger
“Murder in the Waxworks” (Thrilling Mystery, March 1939)
“Fulfillment” (Strange Stories, April 1939) – unknown
“Arab Interlude” (Thrilling Adventures, May 1939) – unknown
“Double Ring” (Strange Stories, June 1939) – Norman A. Daniels
“Cross and Doublecross” (Thrilling Mystery, July 1939) – unknown
“Sea Vision” (Strange Stories, August 1939) – unknown
“House of the Griffon” (Strange Stories, October 1939) – unknown
“The Passing of Eric Holm” (Strange Stories, December 1939) – August Derleth
Dr. Cyclops (1940) – unknown – this was not the Henry Kuttner version done for Thrilling Wonder Stories but another novelizations of the 1940 movie. (This version may have been written by Alexander Samalman.)
“Men of Honor” (Captain Future, Spring 1940) – unknown
“Cellar of Skulls” (Thrilling Mystery, May 1940) – unknown
“The Dead Shall Rise Up” (Strange Stories, August 1940) – August Derleth
“Astral Newspaper” (Strange Stories, October 1940) – unknown
“Hate’s Handiwork” (Strange Stories, February 1941) – unknown
“Murder Dream” (The Masked Detective, Winter 1941) – unknown
“Memory Block” (Captain Future, Spring 1941) – unknown
“Day of Debts” (Thrilling Mystery, May 1941) – unknown
“Incident on Titan” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1941) – Mort Weisinger
“The Bounty Hunter” (Thrilling Western, October 1947) – unknown
“Reckon, You’re Right” (Rodeo Romances, October 1947) – unknown
“The Turkey Track Hires a Hand” (Thrilling Western, November 1947) – unknown
“Men of Honor” was reprinted in the Summer 1951 issue of Fantastic Story Quarterly.
i have read this:
The novel, often attributed to, but not by, Henry Kuttner, was perhaps written by Alexander Samalman. Kuttner did write a shorter magazine version from the film script which was published in THRILLING WONDER STORIES, June 1940. There seems a lot of debate about what Kuttner actually wrote in connection with this title
Will Garth did a bunch of great looking suff. I would love to read those stories.
Kuttner has been given so many pseudonyms that when Jack Vance published his first stories, some people claimed that it was another pseudonym of Kuttner!